#the terrans are the weakest part of the show

[spishidden]

I get that Earthspark kinda needs the Terrans to look cool and all since they're the main characters, but it kinda sucks how basically every other cybertronian gets nerfed somehow for the sake of the plot.

The best example I can find is Shockwave getting offlined. That was so stupid. If this was any other Shockwave he would not have gone down without fight. Mans didn't even move an inch and just casually let himself get killed. The reason for that? So that the Terrans get to save the day all by themselves.

I just find it very hard to believe that these five c h i l d r e n are more powerful and competent than the million year old war veterans, some of whom were literally forged for fighting.

[justmenoworries]

Okay, I'm about to say something very controversial.

I think the Terrans and the Maltos are kind of the weakest part of EarthSpark.

"What? But they're the main characters!"

Yeah, I know. That's the problem.

The main characters are this group of children who are, for the most part, not in the loop when it comes to the show's more interesting conflicts.

The Transformers fitting in on Earth, post-war tensions between Decepticons and Autobots, G.H.O.S.T. being corrupt, parts of humanity being suspicious of and/or downright hostile toward Cybertronians- all of those are things the Maltos are either only tangentially related to or stumble across accidentally.

And that makes sense!

The Terrans and the Maltos are literally children, they shouldn't have to deal with all of that. And the way the show makes clear how brutally the realities of war hit them once shit starts going down is absolutely heartbreaking and well-written.

Still, I can't help but find their story-arcs... kinda boring and repetitive.

Now, I'm aware EarthSpark wasn't really made for people my age. It was made for young children, kids who are just starting to become Transformers-fans and need or might need an introduction to this universe and its characters.

And its message about the power of love and family is a really important one to tell.

But part of me can't help but feel that the Transformers stuff kind of ends up falling by the wayside.

When I think of episodes I enjoyed, the ones that come to mind are always those where the Maltos either interact with Cybertronian characters or ones where the Maltos completely take a backseat, leaving the plot room to focus on the Cybertronians and their troubles ("Decoy", "House Rules", "Missed Connections", "Warzone").

While the episodes that focus more to entirely on the Terrans were often the ones I was least interested in ("Moo-ving In", "Friends and Family", "Bear Necessities"). That's not to say any of these episodes are bad, but like I said, they weren't particularly interesting.

At times it feels like the show itself is aware that the Maltos don't really contribute much and flips a switch to artificially boost their importance. Like in the finale where all the Cybertronians (and Terrans) just so happen to get incapacitated so that Mo and Robbie can save the day with their magical healing sleeves.

There is this constant tug-of-war between a heartwarming slice of life cartoon about family, coming-of-age and love and a dark space opera epos about the consequences and casualties of war, racism and genocide. And when these two clash it often doesn't work.

We'll spend one moment talking about how Megatron used to brutalize his troops and the next doing a comedic sequence where Bumblebee falls off his hay-chair and does a funny exclamation. One moment we're examining the unjust detainment of one faction while the other walks free, and then suddenly it's "Look! The funny mini-casette-bots are making craaazy mischief!"

We get hints that there's something more going on, we get hints that some characters deal with heavy stuff, but if those characters aren't the Terrans or the Malto kids or in any way related to them, hints is all we ever get until everything comes bursting out at once.

Just to make this clear, I am not saying that EarthSpark is a bad show overall or that I hate the show. But no piece of media is perfect and the reason I'm criticizing EarthSpark isn't because I want it to go down, it's because I want it to do better.

Back to the Maltos: If they were interesting enough characters, I wouldn't mind them being the protagonists at all. They have potential, I'll admit to that.

But once you get past the novelty of Transformers born on Earth and being bonded with humans, there's just not much to them.

They're not very deep as characters go and their personalities aren't strong enough to carry them just as they are. They're your standard bickering but loving kid siblings.

It doesn't help that they're not really allowed to be anything but a family unit, to the point of being quite literally a hive mind.

And yes, the show wants to send a message about being open with your emotions and family bonds. But after the umpteenth time a Malto-character started a monologue about how much they love their family and how much their family makes them strong and how they're confident they can get through anything with their family I was like

I hope they develop these characters further in season 2. I want to like them, but right now it's really not easy for me.

Those are just my two cents, feel free to give your own.

[blueikeproductions]

Ok.

I’m just gonna say it, I don’t care who it offends:

Earthspark is by far THE weakest show Transformers produced. It’s certainly not the WORST though for the most part it’s still not very good, Cyberverse has that honor at the top worst kids TF show… The adult themed shows are still utterly terrible though and I don’t know if I blame Hasbro or the writers specifically. RiD15 and Beast Machines are far superior shows by comparison, their main faults are being (loose) sequels to (mostly in Prime’s case) stronger entries.

I DESPISE tonally uneven shows made in the modern era due to how subversive modern writers feel the need to make everything. This is why Hollywood is struggling so bad, heck the trending kids TV shows on Paramount wasn’t EarthSpark, the first two things were 2012 Turtles & SpongeBob followed by mostly preschool shows. People just don’t want to watch EarthSpark and if they are I guarantee it’s pirating or taking advantage of a free trial… But mostly pirating, let’s not kid ourselves.

I skipped ahead to the end because I was more interested in Terratronus than really anything else. And I’m told the other episodes aren’t much better.

The final episode of the batch sums up what I think the show was trying to be, because it’s so much course correction. So so sooooo much course correction.

The show has rebranded itself into a more traditional Autobots vs Decepticons plot, but realistically it’s more strictly the Terrans vs the Decepticons. The Autobots don’t really get to do much of anything here. As much as I do like Tudyk in the role of Optimus, and I get he’s a busy guy, but he’s wasted here. They would’ve been better off having the more readily available Peter Cullen be Optimus still.

The positives: The Decepticons back to being proper villains again. Starscream is allowed to be Starscream as we know him and he’s amazing, this is basically the five part pilot Prime Starscream without the universe molding him into the pathetic twerp his Aligned self became (despite a rebound in RiD). The Decepticons rally behind Starscream who seeks to turn Earth into a replacement Cybertron, ala similar plots back in G1 and one instance in Prime. They thankfully soft retcon the domestic abuse thing with Starscream too, which sees him correct Hashtag in his advice from before, to only look out for yourself. As such Starscream is free to be the maniacal gear shaft we all know he can be and what Skybound reminded us he could be! In a way it’s similar to Heathers, where when confronted by Veronica, Heather Duke accepts and admits she is a Mega Bitch because she can be.

The Chaos Terrans are more interesting than the Autobot Terrans. Fully aligned with the Decepticons and powered by the chaotic energy of the Emberstone shards, they’re ready to rumble and tear Witwicky apart. Spitfire is functionally the Foot Recruit in Rise of the TMNT mixed with TFA Wasp.

Nightshade is allowed to be a character and not a soapbox for stock Tumblr-Twitter brand Non-Binary rhetoric. (Turns out the NB people I know don’t like how TV portrays them as only being NB and not getting to be actual people with desires & interests, who knew!) They get to be a cool and quirky scientist and they elbow punch Thrash when he’s being dumb, just what I want to see.

The newest Terran introduced is functionally the matriarch, the grandmother of the Terrans: Terratronus. She is a Titan created on Earth during its early days, and was meant to protect the stone from the Quintessons, who wanted to take it from Quintus and use it for their own ends. She went into stasis lock after tricking the Quints, and eons go by, she was buried underneath the town, and is the source of the tech, ruins and Quintus blessed water. She doesn’t seem capable of Transforming atm, but she’s the final boss of the batch, as Starscream uses the Emberstone to make his own sleeve to control her to destroy all humans to pave the way for New Cybertron.

The negatives: -neck cracks- Oh boy.

If you aren’t already on board with the Maltos, this isn’t gonna endear you to them. Robbie takes over as the leader of the group, a role he was intended to have to begin with, but he’s still overshadowed by his sister. He seems throughly done having the Emberstone gizmos after seeing Starscream is stomping the town with Terratronus, but he gets over it pretty quickly when circumstances happen later.

Mo continues to have this uncanny valley look, and now has this sassy teenage girl boss vibe despite still not being a teenager. She doesn’t crap on anyone she seems to care about, in contrast to most girl bosses, but the energy is still there and it’s off putting. I do at least like she was willing to punch Starscream in the face. I don’t like this incessant need to make all girls action girls. I hated it with Webby, and I don’t like it here. Let Mo be a little girl who likes girly things, and please for the love of Primus, let the next little girl character be this. Can we please go back to Carly, Sari and Mikayla? They’re a much better balance of what these shows are trying to do with the human cast. The funny thing is Dot seems to have the opposite problem, she was initially more stern but loving but she’s lost a lot of her grit now. Dot is where a lot of the sass and grit should be but no.

I hope you didn’t grow attached to the Terracons, because due to things I’ll get into later, they’re deader’n dead. A means to an end to the Decepticons, Starscream yanks out their shards to complete the Emberstone, that part makes sense. It’s what happens later that screams “Slag you.”

The shard plot is dealt with surprisingly fast, I guess an artifact of not being guaranteed a full run in the modern era, and the so called lack of attention spans from kids. If kids can keep up with modern anime plots, they have the attention spans, I hate it when kids are always treated like they’re morons. They just largely have no interest in Twitter-Tumblr writing. On that note, when the Maltobots realize they’ve collected all the shards (including the ones the Decepticons currently have), they have a very forced and cringy dance party that comes out of nowhere. And it becomes a reoccurring b-plot until they’re dragged back into reality by Mo & Hashtag revealing Terratronus. It feels like an attempt to do a similar gag in Fosters, when Herriman starts a party when the cruel Dutchess is adopted, but it lacks the build up and punch, it just happens and it’s embarrassing.

Also while I do like Robbie in the leadership role better than Twitch, the lack of being able to say Transform & Roll Out due to copyright issues is aggravating. Especially when the present Terrans don’t Transform into ground vehicles. Rev Up & Roll Out and Roll to the Rescue were fitting for the Bee Team and Rescue Bots, why can’t the Terrans have their own battle cry?

Starscream piloting Terratronus is more or less a retread of Mandroid and his Howl’s Moving Castle rip off. On one hand, it’s a more impressive version, I wanted a proper MetroTitan fight and this scratches that itch. The problem is that due to the Decepticons petrifying the all the Autobots Dr. Stone style with the Emberstone, it just leaves the children, Thrash and Hashtag to largely run away. The only thing they are able to do is Bubble Terratronus Steven Universe style and leave her in Stasis Lock in the destroyed half of the town. So not a great showing for the grandmother of the Terrans, and it makes Hashtag and Thrash look useless. Thrash even more so.

The Decepticons abandon Starscream really for no reason. Starscream borrows Steeljaw’s plan to make a Decepticon homeworld out of Earth and has the capacity to do so with Terratronus, but outside of killing the Terracons, Starscream has no real interest in killing the other Decepticons. Caught up in his glee, he (accidentally?) knocks the other Decepticons from the cliff they were cheering him on from. Shockwave, fed up with Starscream, makes the others follow him but they also unknown to the kids, get trapped in the same Bubble, unable to outrun it.

While not a negative exactly, it feeds into the awkward restructuring of the show, where it’s trying really hard to borrow stuff from Transformers Animated, a far more popular show still liked today. Starscream piloting Terratronus is very similar to when he took over Omega Supreme, and that’s when he was reduced to a head. It’s also similar to the Lugnut Supremes, though Starscream didn’t pilot them strictly. Him going power mad also harkens to many past instances with the Underbase, the Omega Lock, and the Allspark itself. Curiously the only difference is Starscream wasn’t actually driven insane this time, he was just having fun piloting a giant robot and getting revenge on the Maltos.

Shockwave doesn’t see the point in Starscream’s plan, instead wanting to go back to Cybertron. Starscream rightfully tells off the purple people eater he hasn’t been able to prove if Cybertron even still exists. This is somewhat at odds with Shockwave’s earlier portrayal when he seemed mostly fine at taking over Earth back then. I guess the idea was to give Starscream his own disagreeable follower, but I don’t know if it works with Shockwave here. Maybe Swindle or Nova Storm, though neither are a good fit either…

Also the Emberstone itself is destroyed. The kids try to heal it but it just disintegrates. All that trouble and the life giving relic just goes kaput. Which also means Aftermath and Spitfire are super dead baring some last minute thing in the final episodes that revives them. So the only Decepticon aligned Terrans we get and the best characters get killed off.. Terrific. Mo is mortified but Robbie is surprisingly chill about it, saying they already got what they needed out of it anyway. I hope Quintus wasn’t expecting more grandchildren because he ain’t getting them. The only fix to this is if Terratronus is capable of making new Transformers like the IDW MetroTitans were able to, and that’s assuming she doesn’t die too in a half skid plate way.

Finally the animation. A flash back by Terratronus details how the Emberstone and the Quintessons came to Earth in the first place. It’s rendered a 2D comic book style that far better shows off the stylization the show is tricking for and it looks amazing. The CGI is still good but nothing beats old fashioned 2D animation with polish. Let’s get Mook back to 2D animate Transformers if we can’t get Trigger, but we really need Trigger to do a new TF show in our life time. Because this string of debatable quality CGI for older kids since Prime needs to stop. When the Beast Machines Vehicons, especially the Diagnostic Drone which doesn’t even HAVE a face, are able to express better expressions 20+ some years ago, there’s no excuse!

The next thing needs to either be Bravern or 4S Gridman visually bare minimum or at least have writing on par with Beast Wars and Animated. This is nonnegotiable. We need better writers, and writers who at least are capable of making fun stuff that isn’t tethered by IDW’s bad ideas.

Earthspark is one step forward, two steps back so far. I can at least tell tell they’re trying, and that’s an improvement, but it’s not enough to win anyone back and the changes are gonna cheese off people like Skywalker did to Last Jedi fans… On to the next and presumably final batch I suppose.

[iamjacsmusings]

MCU Challenge musings

18 weeks. 18 films. The MCU Challenge. In collaboration with Team #Geekstalkers. Collated musings below, all leading to Infinity War.

#1 - Iron Man

Robert Downey Jnr IS Tony Stark, Tony Stark IS Iron Man, Iron Man IS the first MCU Avenger. Without this we wouldn’t have the MCU as we know and love it. Despite that, coming soon after Batman’s triumphant return as it does, I can’t help but feel the identikit Iron Man Begins falls a little flat. The weak MCU villain problem is present and incorrect right from Mk 1 too.

#2 - The Incredible Hulk

Tonally misjudged and (latterly) at odds with the hulk as we know and love him in the shared MCU. Watching now, 15 entries later, it feels non-canon. As a standalone, inspired by the 70s show, it’s fine.

#3 - Iron Man 2

Probably [one of] the weakest #mcuchallenge entries for me as it aims for “cool” moments rather than developing character or overarching story. On the flipside, it introduces us to ScarJo’s Black Widow

#4 - Thor

In no particular order: the direction of Branagh, the realisation of the Rainbow bridge, the triple H acting of Hemsworth, Hiddleston and Hopkins, the hilarious humour, the majesty of Mjolnir, the Shakespearean plot machinations; all are Thor-some!

#5 - Captain America: The First Avenger

I (too) was predisposed to preferring this origin above all Avengers due to my predilection for Captain America as a character, so the bar was set high. Johnson, the perfectly chosen director, exceeded it by making a boys own adventure replete with echoes of his Lucasfilm roots. It’s underrated in my opinion and should be considered as the Raiders of Phase One. Joe Johnson just *got* 1940s Adventure-era Cap. As too does Evans who only continues to get better with each subsequent appearance. I could watch Cap movies all day…

#6 - Avengers Assemble

Still top 5 MCU of all-time. The Avengers characterisations are spot on in this initial assemblage; no mean feat considering the wealth of source material, the origins of Phase One and the balancing act of at least seven key roles. Come the epic Chitauri invasion finale and from the Avengers arc shot onwards there’s too many fist-pumping, geekgasm moments to mention; spine tingling each and every one of them.

#7 - Iron Man 3

As a fanboy of @BonafideBlack’s buddy banter and noir stylings, I’m on board with his Iron Man entry (noir is an anagram of Iron after all) He write characters therefore it came as no surprise that his take delves beneath the suit to the mechanic that wears it. I’m aware I’m in the minority, but the first two don’t do much for me therefore this is like a shot of extremis to Shellhead’s previously floundering solo entries. It still looks to be Stark’s swansong and, if so, it’s a fine way to finish IMO. Kiss Kiss Iron Man, if you will. The “barrel of monkeys” scene is one of the stand out scenes from the entire MCU too.

#8 - Thor: The Dark World

The tone, palette and plot of this inferior sequel is arguably more aligned with the much maligned DC(E)U rather than the rightly-lauded MCU; make of that what you will. I’d gladly watch an anthology prequel about the Lord of the Aether battle glimpsed in the prologue though…

#9 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

An espionage thriller every bit as good as the best Bourne or Bond has to offer, Captain America: The Winter Soldier just happens to have a few present and future Avengers at its centre. The undisputed leader of the Avengers as the 18-strong MCU currently stands, the more I revisit Captain America Super Soldier, the closer the film creeps towards my current cream of the big screen comic book crop, The Dark Knight.

#10 - Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy is better than any film about a half-Terran cross between Han Solo and Indiana Jones, a walking thesaurus, a talking tree, a green-skinned warrior woman and a bad-tempered raccoon has any right to be. I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve seen GotG already. There’s so much to admire, so much Galaxy to explore. it bears repeat viewing. Every joke still lands. Every emotional beat pulls a heart string. Every character is worthy of fronting their own galactic adventure. We. Are. Groot.

#11 - Avengers: Age of Ultron

There’s much to admire in this movie as Whedon ably juggles the ever-growing ensemble cast; each one gets their moment so, no matter who your favourite is, you should feel satisfied come the conclusion. The action scenes pay off with key moments that remain in the memory: the team line-up, “Go to sleep, go to sleep”, Black Widow on the bike, Hawkeye motivating Scarlet Witch and the arc shot around the Avengers as they end the threat of too many Ultrons. Quiet moments pay off too: the party is perfect (especially Thor’s face as Cap moves Mjolnir), the interlude at ranch Barton is a top idea and the lull in the final fight manages to move; I even welled up a little as Cap and Widow debate their fate this watch. In short, it’s endlessly rewatchable, as my SuperSon has put to the test.

#12 - Ant-Man

Easily the most underrated entry in the entirety of the MCU to date, Ant-Man is also, upon reflection, my favourite solo character origin story. Giant-sized words, I know!

#13 - Captain America: Civil War

War! What is it good for? Captain America movies!

I love Civil War. It’s edgy. It;s important. It’s epic! It truly feels like a “superhero comic book movie” ripped from the panelled page. And, Thor damn, the Russo’s sure can shoot the shit (Sorry, Cap) out of an action scene. Speaking of scenes, there’s one in Fight Club when the Narrator and Tyler mock a Gucci advertisement, asking if it’s what a real man look like. It’s not, no. What a real man looks like is Captain America holding a helicopter with one arm and a building with the other. Swoon.

I could watch this on repeat all day. 

#14 - Doctor Strange

Let’s face it, Cumberbatch was the only choice for Strange, as suited to the hyper-intelligent, egotistical, socially-awkward auteur as Downey Jr was to Stark’s genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist. By this point in the MCU, Marvel can do origin with ease as this return to formula proves. Whilst Doctor Strange does remind you of movies from before (Iron Man, Batman Begins, Inception, Matrix), it patches them together into a kaleidoscopic Frankenstein of its own making.

Oh, one more thing: it goes without saying how awesome Doctor Strange’s enchanted Cloak of Levitation is – I’d argue it’s the single best cinema companion since Gromit!

#15 - Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol Two

GotG amped up to 11, Vol. 2 is less a case of difficult second volume, more Gunn locked and loaded. GotG2 is deeper, richer and cleverer than it’s predecessor, if not as instantly iconic nor anarchic in its punk rock aesthetics or impact. Ego, we’ve all got to grow up sometime. Following the near perfection of the first Volume was always going to be a tricky proposition, but this sophomore space saga soars true enough and will surely, in time, serve as a solid central entry in a worthy Guardians of the Galaxy stand-alone trilogy.

#16 - Spider-Man: Homecoming

Did I need another resuited Spider-Man movie so soon after the last aborted attempt? I didn’t think so until I saw this coming-of-age comedy that referenced Ferris Bueller, BttF: Part II and The Breakfast Club (among others)

Did I need another iteration of Spider-Man and his teen geek alter-ego Peter Parker? I didn’t think so until I saw Tom Holland’s infectiously enthusiastic and ultimately incomparable portrayal of everyone’s favourite neighbourhood webslinging wannabe Avenger.

Did I need another potentially disappointing take on a classic Spider-Man villain? I didn’t think so until Michael Keaton’s birdman soared above almost any other adapted antagonist from the entirety of comic canon – not since Loki have I feared and cheered in equal measure.

Did I need another big screen Spider-Man blockbuster? I didn’t think so until I understood what this wall-crawlers direction was under the genius creative control of chief Watcher Feige within the winning MCU. Now I need more, for thwips sake…

#17 - Thor Ragnarok

Space fantasy as its Flash(“ahh ah”)iest, Ragnarok is: Thorsome, Hela good, Full of gloriously glib Loki asides, a Hulk load of fun, great Valkyrie for money! Third time’s the charm for the God of Thunder. I can’t TaikaWaititi to see the Revengers return in Infinity War!

#18 - Black Panther

Stunning Wakanda world building. Convincing and charismatic cast performances. Strong character motivations. Serious and meaningful underlying themes. Too much CGI. MCU continuity issues. Nowhere near enough Michael B Jordan. Good not great. Middling MCU Challenge entry for me.

[ericdeggans]

Praising the First Season of Star Trek: Discovery, the Best TV Show You’re Not Watching.

Be patient. Trust our storytelling.

Critics often hear these words from showrunners and executive producers trying to stem adverse reactions to questionable choices. It certainly seemed the producers of Star Trek: Discovery were trying that same tactic, as fan ire built over a clunky first episode last September and plot twists earlier in the season which seemed to kill off valued characters while bending the nature of the Trek universe into unrecognizable shapes.

Responses like that are usually little more than artful dodges – an attempt to buy time until fans can get over their ire. But in this case, the show’s last few episodes this year, leading to a head-turning season finale Sunday on streaming service CBS All Access, have stood as powerful proof that producers knew what they were doing all along.

The biggest point of contention here has always been Trek’s overall philosophy – a spirit that began with series creator Gene Roddenberry and which has been used to unite all the various iterations of Star Trek in film and TV back to the mothership series in the late 1960s.

Roddenberry’s vision of the future was as a near-utopia when humans had conquered stuff like greed, inequality and hate. But that’s also the stuff that makes for really good TV drama. So Trek series seemed to get duller and duller as the years went on, trapped in a rigid formula that made it difficult to produce adventures as grand as a 50-year-old sci fi franchise demanded.

Then came Discovery. Its first episodes featured Sonequa Martin-Green’s character – a human raised as a Vulcan foster child, named Michael Burnham – committing treason by circumventing her captain. Then, one of the show’s highest profile stars, Michelle Yeoh, saw her character killed off in the second episode.

And we met Gabriel Lorca. Played by Harry Potter alum Jason Isaacs, Lorca is an impatient, ruthless, driven captain of the U.S.S. Discovery who seemed nothing like the kind of officers who should have been filling Trek’s Starfleet at the time.

(Left to right, Doug Jones, Sonequa Martin-Green, Jason Isaacs, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman) 

A few weeks ago, we found out why (hugely big spoiler coming). Lorca actually comes from a parallel universe – Trekkers call it the “mirror universe” -- where humans have built a ruthless, xenophobic imperium called the Terran Empire, aimed at subjugating all races outside their own. This place first appeared in 1967 on the classic Trek episode “Mirror, Mirror,” and has popped up in subsequent Trek TV series like Deep Space Nine and Enterprise.

(left to right, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock and William Shatner as Captain Kirk in the Mirror Universe, from “Mirror, Mirror.”)

There were subtle clues. Lorca had a sensitivity to light, which turns out to be the only physical difference between folks from the Terran universe and those in the Federation’s dimension. He reacted to someone trying to wake him unexpectedly by jumping up and grabbing a phaser – a reacton you would expect from a Terran, where officers often advance by killing superiors.    

The last few episodes have moved at lightspeed, as Discovery’s producers raced toward their end game. Suddenly, it was explained why Lorca seemed so un-Starfleet like; we saw the return of beloved characters like Yeoh’s Phillippa Georgiou and Wilson Cruz’s Hugh Culber (who, with Anthony Rapp’s Paul Stamets, was the first gay couple on a Trek series until another character killed him).

Fans who groused when Yeoh’s character was killed in the show’s second episode got to see her play the Terran version of Georgiou, who was empress of her universe. The change seemed to suit Yeoh better, frankly; she was much more compelling as an evil woman of action than a contemplative Starfleet officer. And Burnham’s impulsive decision to bring her into the Federation’s universe ensures that we’ll have a delicious character to savor in the show’s second season.

(Yeoh as the Empress of the Terran Empire)

Likewise, a storyline in Sunday’s episode where Georgiou convinces Starfleet to let her implement a secret plan to destroy the Klingon’s homeworld – decimating the species in the bargain – only reaffirmed Trek’s values when Burnham and the rest of Discovery’s crew refused to go along with the strategy. There are important lines these Starfleet officers won’t cross, and that distinction matters, as Burham and her compatriots set about building the kind of utopian Starfleet Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock will inhabit ten years later.

In the process, they answered a question the show has been asking in obvious and subtle ways since the series began: What would you do to win a brutal war? And if winning required leaving your most treasured values behind, would victory be worth it?

The trade magazine Variety pegged the show’s budget at an eye-popping $8 million to $8.5 million per episode -- and you can see every penny on screen, with high quality special effects and thoughtfully designed new versions of everything from the phaser guns to the Klingon aliens.

That has also meant most episodes of the series are only viewable on the subscription service All Access. Which is likely why the larger TV-watching public is unaware of how much ground Discovery producers are breaking in a show that took flight in the second half of its first seasone.

In fact, CBS executives made a serious error in airing just one episode of Discovery on the broadcast network when the show debuted. It was the weakest of the series’ episodes so far, and served mostly to convince curious fans who were already irritated that CBS was making them pay to see most of the program, that Discovery wasn’t really worth their time, after all.

But they were wrong. Discovery has proven, over its last few episodes, that it’s the best TV series most people aren’t watching or talking about right now.  

There’s still lots of questions Discovery yet needs to answer. Burnham was supposedly raised as a ward of Vulcan ambassador Sarek, father to beloved character Mr. Spock. But somehow, Spock never made reference to a human adopted sister over nearly 50 years of TV shows and movies. They have to make some moves toward explaining that one soon.

Likewise, the Starship Discovery uses a special engine drive we’ve never seen in a previous iteration of Trek – it’s how they magically jumped into the mirror universe to begin with. Since the series takes place a decade before the era of Kirk and Spock, they’ll need to explain why we never heard of this amazing technology that can move a spacecraft to the other side of the universe in the blink of an eye.

And, of course, the season finale also introduced us to The Enterprise, which is presumably led by the guy who preceded Kirk in the captain’s chair, Christopher Pike. The biggest question: Will Burnham’s brother Mr. Spock, who was Pike’s second in command before Kirk, also be there? (probably not.)

I’m looking forward to seeing how all these discrepancies get explained in the second season. Throughout this first season, there was always a sense that producers were writing themselves into corners no sane TV writer would attempt -- Georgiou’s dead! The Discovery is in the mirror universe! Lorca’s a Terran! Now he’s dead! The Federation is losing the war with Klingons! -- and part of the fun was seeing how they navigated out of such danger zones with bravery and a deft storytelling touch.

Now that I’ve seen how the folks working on Discovery operate, I’m ready to sit back and let the stories flow, secure that answers will come in time. And they’ll be spectacular.

I guess I’ve learned to trust them, after all.